DURHAM — At a time when enrollment is soaring, Durham Technical Community College will have to make do with more than a million dollars less in state funding this coming academic year.

Among other impacts, cuts in the new state budget will mean that a dual enrollment program that allows high school students to take general education courses at Durham Tech will be significantly curtailed.

"We're being asked to do more with less," said Bill Ingram, the school's president. "Relative to other parts of state government and other community college system, we came out pretty well, but it will be a challenge and we'll have to do the best we can with what we have."

The recently enacted state budget broadly restricted the kinds of courses high school students could take at a community college as well as Huskins Bill courses, which are taught by community college teachers on high school campuses. Durham Tech provides Huskins courses through cooperative agreements with the Durham Public Schools, the Orange County Schools and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

The Huskins and dual enrollment programs have become popular among high school students trying to get a jump start on college. Essentially, only mathematics, science and technical courses will be funded now.

While the dual enrollment courses haven't been a major component at Durham Tech -- last year, the program brought in only about $40,000 in enrollment fees -- the school will take a $300,000 hit in funding because of the new restrictions. The statewide cost of the program was $14 million, and the cut was figured on the basis of each campus' proportion of the overall budget.

"It's the price you pay for being part of the community college system," Ingram said.

Durham Tech is also losing an additional $620,000 in general fund money, but will be receiving almost $900,000 in additional enrollment growth funding. However, that additional funding was based on enrollment increasing by 7 or 8 percent; administrators at the school now expect enrollment to increase by between 10 and 12 percent.

Additionally, the state community college board has suggested to the individual campuses that they hold back about 4 or 5 percent of their budget, for the possibility of additional funding reversions later needed by the state later on in the year.

"If tax revenues continue to decline, that could happen," Ingram said. "That's why we'll hold back about a million and a half dollars."

Available funding for Durham Tech this year will be under $23 million, compared to last year's $24 million, while the school tries to serve a much larger student body.

"Frankly, we're kind of used to this," Ingram said. "Community colleges are counter-cyclical. When our demand is at its highest, the economy is usually at its worst. So we knew this was coming and we're kind of used to doing this. We've figured out ways to manage the situation in the past."